More than 450 Ray White Group members from across New South Wales descended on Sydney’s Ivy Hotel for Unite 2020.
Hosted across capital cities by Australasia’s biggest real estate group, the Unite 2020 program provides a new and improved training format for salespeople and property managers.
The sessions were designed to help its agents navigate and adapt to current market conditions.
Ray White Group Managing Director Dan White (pictured above) said it was wonderful to see so many members in attendance from across the state.
“The group’s members worked so hard last year and never gave up hope, and as the market picked up, we were in the right spot as momentum increased,” Mr White said.
“We need to have one eye on the microscope and one eye on the telescope. We put more focus on auctions and auctions skills than ever last year, which is unusual as we’re not known as an auction house, but the refocus is paying dividends.
“Looking ahead, we need to take risks and ask ourselves what are we going to do differently, and keep advancing.
“We’ve just invested in some technology to help agents be more productive with better seamless communication skills. There’ll be a lot coming available for our members in the next 12 months.
“This will help us be more relevant in 2020.”
Ray White NSW co-CEOs Jason Andrew and Andrew McCulloch said the future goal was to sell one in every five homes in New South Wales.
“By 2025 I want us to have a market share of 15 per cent (right now we’re at 12 per cent) but in fact we need to push for 20 per cent market share,” Mr Andrew said.
“It’s important to get the goal right so we can say we sell one in every five homes. We want to be able to control that narrative, we want to be able to say that we have more buyers than anyone else, which equals more competition.”
Mr McCulloch added his congratulations to the marketing team and the Ray White Group as a whole for their roles in the real estate industry-wide Beyond the Bricks bushfire campaign.
“The relief, rebuild and restore drive has so far raised more than $1,000,000 and we’ll proudly hold a charity event today to help raise even more funds for this important cause,” he said.
Keynote speaker former SAS captain Mark Wales spoke to the Unite 2020 crowd about mental health and the important role it played for those who work in high-performance jobs.
“Sometimes people overwork themselves for years and a burn out creeps up on them. So, putting yourself first – and that means eating, sleeping and resting properly – is incredibly important,” Mr Wales said.
Ray White Communications and Customer Experience Manager Natalie Hortz and Head of Marketing Lisa Pennell spoke to the group about the importance of technology, in particular video.
Ray White General Counsel Alexandra Coleman then shone a light on the upcoming property and licensing reforms in New South Wales, which come into effect on March 23.
She explained the reforms included three license levels (anyone who currently has a license or certificate will automatically convert to the comparable license of certificate), that various functions will change depending on the level of license (you may not be entitled to do what you currently can), and only class one agents will be able to authorise withdrawal from trust accounts.
Ray White Group’s Head of Performance Adam Downes took centre stage to show members the finer points of the Pulse dashboard which enables agents to track their own individual performance against the broader network.
He was then joined by Ray White New Farm Principal Matt Lancashire, the pair discussing how to understand your value.
“It took me nine months to make my first sale – I was pretty ordinary at it,” Mr Lancashire confessed. “I wasn’t sure of what I was doing or what I wanted to achieve.
“At the time I was 26, I’d gotten myself into $50,000 credit card debt, and had to move back in with my parents. In 2010, I made the decision to have a really red hot crack at real estate.
“You need to be a big advocate of print and/or a big advertiser, you have to do auctions, and you need to become an extremely hard worker and out-work your competition.
“One thing I like to do is play to my strengths and cut my weaknesses.”
Ray White Head of Growth Mark Mcleod told Unite 2020 that in the modern world customers wanted a relationship with their real estate agent.
“The next 10 years is all about execution and providing our agents with the tools for them to execute better and to deliver an even better customer experience,” Mr McLeod said.
“We need to look at moving out of our comfort zone, move into more of a fear zone, and then into a learning zone. All of these will move us forward into a growth zone.
“When you look at who’ll be around in 10 years’ time – it’ll be the individuals who take advantage of getting closer to the customer.
“It’ll also be the individuals who make it harder to fail than it is to succeed – put the work in so you simply can’t fail.”
In the final session of the day, Ray White NSW co-CEO Jason Andrew sat down with Ray White Upper North Shore Director David Walker to discuss listing presentation skills.
“A listing presentation is giving your potential vendor the belief that you’re going to achieve the highest possible price for them,” Mr Walker said.
“The key is to never focus on another agent – try and do something completely different to them. Use what you can to prove you are the best choice for the vendor.
“Everyone in my team is just as important as everyone else, without people in the team you wouldn’t be where you are. There is no one above anyone else.”
The day also featured a charity auction for the Beyond the Bricks bushfire campaign that raised $2,500 for a trip to both Mollymook and Manyana – two regions that were most affected by the devastating fires.
The Unite 2020 day was well received by Ray White Group members across New South Wales with different highlights ticking the boxes.
“I really liked the keynote speaker. The key takeaway I got from him was to always be prepared and put plans in place so it’s harder to fail,” said Ray White Goulburn Sales Consultant Justin Gay.
“David Walker and Matt Lancashire were the highlights for me. I love coming to days like this so I can learn and improve processes,” said Ray White North Richmond Sales Executive Cindy Cash.
“I personally liked the presentation by Matt Lancashire and the main takeaway for me was to recognise your weaknesses and fix them,” said Ray White Bankstown Director Tony Roumanous.
